When the global financial crisis hit western economies and stopped them in their tracks, it seemed that BRIC’s, with their continued growth and imperialist aspirations, were turning the balance of power in their favour. Today it is clear that this is no longer the case. The allure that Brazil, Russia, India and China might have had has long since vanished.

To make matters worse, the European institutions, built on dubious theoretical underpinnings to begin with, are crumbling in the face of a refugee crisis for which the foreign policy of EU’s biggest ally is largely to blame. As the system is plagued by secular stagnation, it starts to resemble a zero-sum geopolitical game, a modern version of mercantilism in a world where new regional free trade blocks are meant as much to include some as to exclude others.

And the fallout of 'The Great Game' is a refugee crisis that has been a triumph for reactionary political forces in the third world as well as in Europe itself. Beneficent actions and motives that could possibly justify charitable behaviour occupy a central place in morality. Peter Singer in his provocative paper ‘Famine, Affluence and Morality’ (1972) advocates extremely demanding and far-reaching principles of obligatory beneficence on the basis of a very intuitive premise. “If - he says - it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it”.

The three-dimensional crisis of today dwarfs the non-transparent and secretive trade agreements that are intended to provide additional institutional support to global corporations, which, hiding behind the current societal dynamics, continue their business as usual. What is more, these free trade agreements seem only to increase the power of these corporations over consumers, local producers, and environmental concerns, masquerading under the banner of free trade.

While changes in the economic and social environment are more pervasive than ever, economics as a science seems to be deaf to the need for deeper understanding. With the emphasis on equilibrium, economic rationality and a frictionless world, neoclassical economics remains to occupy the position of theoretical and methodological authority. Highly accredited academic journals continue to discriminate the content on the basis of this ‘ideology’ while best universities resist the need to open the curriculum in order to grasp the dynamics of socioeconomic systems.

As the world is on the brink of sinking into the 'abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science' (Churchill, 1940), economic theory remembers the 80th anniversary of Keynes' General Theory and the 50th anniversary of Monopoly Capital, both very relevant to understanding the world today. Last year made it clear that financial capital, as long as it is free to move across borders, trumps national democracy, since whichever party gets elected is forced to implement virtually the same set of policies. Instead of having policies for a more humane world, we see growth in military expenditures, and Keynesianism for the financial markets.